The England coach, Peter Moores, has admitted that his two senior bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, looked weary in the second Test against Sri Lanka and hinted that the pair may not play in all five of the forthcoming Tests against India.

Anderson was the leading wicket-taker on either side after taking 12 at 21.50 at Lord’s and Headingley, while Broad took seven in all at 34.57. But both bowled close to 100 overs in the series and in the pivotal session on Monday Sri Lanka, thanks to a combination of poor bowling and Angelo Mathews’ brilliant batting, were allowed to escape from 277 for seven to 457 all out.

Having also come to within two balls of saving the series for England, batting for 81 minutes and facing 55 deliveries for a duck, Anderson cut an emotional figure during the post-match presentations and fought back tears as he picked up the man- of-the-series award.

With the India series being squeezed into little more than six weeks between 9 July and 19 August, there are concerns that the pair may struggle to contend with the schedule. “For any bowler the way the Tests are constructed means it is a tight one,” said Moores. “But like most things it depends on how the Test matches shape up – do they go the full five days?”

Moores denied the idea that the absence of a frontline spinner – Moeen Ali bowled 52 overs in the series, while the Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath sent down 127 – had increased the workload for his strike bowlers.

“It has been two tough Test matches, no doubt about that, and that goes with the territory,” he said. “I heard people talking about the workloads being more. I don’t think it is any more when you’re playing four seamers and not three. The fourth seamer and the spinner take the same overs that [Graeme] Swann would have bowled. The workload has been no different.

“I said before, we’re not going to hide from anything, we’ll look at everything and we’ll discuss what we’re going to do. We’re going to go into back-to-back Test matches with India and the spirit we played with on Tuesday and the fight we showed we need to show every second of every day in every Test match we play.”

He added: “We’ve got to look at the series as a whole, look at all aspects and then pick a side for the first Test conscious that it is a five-match series and will be tough.”

While the series was a disappointing one for the side as a whole, there were impressive individual performances. Joe Root, Gary Ballance, Moeen and Sam Robson all scored centuries, while Liam Plunkett took nine wickets at Headingley.

With Ben Stokes returning to fitness and form – the all-rounder, who scored a century in the Ashes Test in Perth, took 10 wickets in Durham’s County Championship game against Sussex this week – and the spin position still a live debate, Moores is facing some interesting selection issues for India.

“Test match teams have never been picked on the back of one performance by anybody,” he said. “Any Test side you pick, it is a tough side to get into and it is a tough side to stay in, always has been. You pick the team that you think is ready to go into that Test or those circumstances or whatever.

“That means there is always going to be a 12- or 13-man squad and some people are going to miss out. We’ve had Chris Woakes miss out in this series and he’s having a fantastic season and has definitely moved forward as a player. He’s just missed out but that is international sport, it is a tough place to get in.”

The coach added: “Refreshingly it is the lads who have got in who have taken their chance, some of those batters have really grabbed their chance.”

One player who did not thrive with the bat was the captain, but Moores is confident that if and when Alastair Cook rediscovers his touch he can be a huge asset for the England side: “If he gets himself into form someone is going to pay.”

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